I think your reading of Octavia Spencer's character (and the performance) is incredibly facile, negating decades upon decades of critical theory on the subversion of stereotype within the African-American community in literature, film and even photography. Does Minny fit a certain black archetype, that of the "Sassy"? Yes, of course, she does. What Spencer does to elevate her performance beyond mere subscription to stereotype is (as The Original BJ hints down-thread) to demonstrate that Minny's sassiness, her jokiness, her quips are all a kind of coping mechanism for her survival and an antidote for an inherent bitterness held towards her station in life. Why that kind of character is often the object of derision in the past was because she was not seen as someone who had feelings beyond the comical artifice. She existed only to entertain white people with her funny ways and her delicious pies. She was not, in any way, supposed to be viewed as a human being with actual feelings, a backstory, a family.mojoe92 wrote:Melissa Octavia Spencer- Don't get me started on this bullshit win... I'm going to leave it at this- A black woman playing a maid...... NOT A STRETCH, show me something new, something we already haven't seen a billion times- Hattie McDaniel, Oprah WInfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and in her own way Cicely Tyson in Sounder... been there done that, stop rewarding people for the same performance... she comes in 4th for me
And, by the way, it's not like Octavia Spencer somehow specializes in sassy black maids. She's played small roles in a legion of films throughout the years, many of which could've been played by an actress of any race.